Wing Commander Influencing Starcraft 2 Design

Shacknews has published an interview with Starcraft 2's lead designer, Dustin Browder, on the subject of story integration in the upcoming real-time strategy title. The game will feature AI NPC characters that are leveraged for plot elements while being used as a gameplay component. They'll even be sitting in the bar and hanging around the ship as the main character walks the halls between mission. This style of optional storytelling was heavily influenced by classic Wing Commanders. Check out the full interview here. Thanks to NCC1701.

Dustin Browder: And our theme in this one, it's like, look, everyone has a different tolerance for story. Some people want more, some people want less. We don't want to force it down their throat, but we don't want it not in there. So we create an environment where it's much more of an optional experience. If you're really interested in these characters--and we kind of hope that at some point everyone is interested in at least some of them--then you can sort of customize your story experience and get as much of it as you want.

Shack: It sort of reminds me of flight sim games.

Dustin Browder: It's very Wing Commander.

Shack: Yeah, Wing Commander, any of those games.

Dustin Browder: Tie Fighter, yeah. Wing Commander is one of our obvious favorite games. We all played it back in the day and loved it, and it's something that definitely spoke to us. I know we're going back years now to pull some of these things out, but we kind of feel like hey, what if it works? Other folks sort of feel like there's sort of an evolution, you can't go back. We're like, hey, if it works, we can go anywhere.

2016-12-08 -- There's lots of great news to report in the world of Wing Commander ebooks! As expected, Wing Commanders Fleet Action and Heart of the Tiger were released this week in all major formats: Baen eBook, Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks and more. These are the second and third releases after Freedom Flight led the charge in July.

2016-12-07 -- Former senior Origin artist Denis Loubet has posted some nifty preview pics for his 2016 Christmas card, and it'll be Wing Commander-themed this year! Hobbes will be featured prominently, and you can see a preview below. He'll reveal the full art for all next month, but if you'd like a printed and signed copy, you might still have time to become a Patron on Patreon and get him your mailing info if you act very fast.

2016-12-06 -- GOG's Winter Sale is heating up, and a selection of Origin and EA games is being discounted this week. The sale page invites you to select up to 10 titles at up to 50% off. Whether intentional or not, the Wing Commander games are currently showing at just $0.

2016-12-05 -- The MechWarrior series will be getting a new single-player sequel! MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries was just announced at Mech Con 2016. It will be made by Piranha Games, the studio behind the MechWarrior Online multiplayer-only shooter that's been running for the past couple years.

2016-12-03 -- Somehow it's December already, and we're trying to be a bit more timely about our annual awards festivities this year. This is our chance to recognize many of the great things that the fan community constantly puts out. Our eighteenth annual Fan Project and Website of the Year Awards will kick off as the year comes to a close, so now's your chance to nominate.

2016-12-02 -- Retro Hour, a UK-based retro gaming podcast, has posted an in-depth audio interview with Wing Commander composer George The Fat Man Sanger. They talk about the origins of his artist name, his early work for slot machines and Atari, the 7th Guest, creative process and the demo scene. The segment with Sanger starts at around the 21:30 mark and the subject briefly turns to Wing Commander at 39:00.

2016-12-01 -- Building on his cockpit research last month, DefianceIndustries has managed to better understand cockpit framing and motion in the Vision Engine. If you click through the gallery quickly, you can start to see how fluid motion in front of a fully detailed dashboard would be pretty cool. There are some other potential upgrades that Defiance mentions below as well...

2016-11-30 -- Adm_maverick has jumped a few more technical hurdles on the way towards his Prophecy Video Project. He's been working with multiple video and audio editors to figure out how to change the names that appear under talking heads and add in new voiceover segments. This new test video shows off this blend of dynamic elements with comm chatter superimposed over external camera footage in one of the early WCP missions.

2016-11-28 -- After all the Confed Forces got a bunch of big bases, the Kilrathi were left needing a place to stay. The new stations outlined here are a great start! Melek's starbase from WC4 makes an appearance as the trading port in the Wing Commander mod for Sins of a Solar Empire.

2016-11-27 -- Flat Universe has achieved a major milestone! After months of dedicated effort, multiplayer combat has now been successfully implemented. The screenshots below show off the team's ceremonial first dogfight between a Hornet and Dralthi.

2016-11-26 -- DefianceIndustries is here to brighten your weekend with a wonderful sunrise scene over Nephele. It shows the BWS cavalry dashing in to save a transport with a rugged assortment of tough ships. A mixed force of Rapiers, Razors, Vindicators and a Thunderbolt should be plenty to take on just about any pirate threat!

2016-11-25 -- What should you get for the Wing Commander fan who has everything? GOG is here to help with the recent addition of Space Rogue, a space sim published by Origin about two years before Chris Roberts' Wing Commander arrived on the scene. The game was designed by Paul Neurath who went on to fame with Ultima Underworld and the System Shock series.

2016-11-24 -- Happy Thanksgiving to our readers out there in the US today! We know there's Wingnuts from all around the world tuning in, and we hope everyone has a great day and weekend coming up too. Owing to its Pilgrim origins, this is a convenient time to remind fans about a Wing Commander novel that few have read, Pilgrim Truth.

2016-11-23 -- As many of you skate into what's hopefully an extended weekend, check out this Nephilim interceptor from Dark Sentinel. The image below shows a comparison between the original and his upgraded version, which is nearly a ten-fold polygon increase. All the smoothness gained here significantly helps the organic feel that the ship should have.

2016-11-22 -- It's been one year since we first reported on DefianceIndustries' Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack. Although he's had to reprioritize and shift focus among some other projects over the last few months, he posted an update to assure fans that progress is still being made. The latest research goes inside the ships to determine how cockpits might be improved.

2016-11-21 -- It's been a while since we've checked in with the Wing Commander RPG, but it should come as no surprise that capi keeps plugging away. Lots of work last month centered around wrapping up the chapter 2.2 section he's been working on and conducting numerous translations into the enhanced Kilrathi language he's designed.

2016-11-19 -- We've got a new poll today, and it asks you to think about all the glorious talking heads of Wing Commander 1. WC1 arrived at an interesting time stylistically - coming down off the '80s' big hair debacle and transitioning into the cool-guy '90s slick look. With so much of our interaction depending on what existed from the shoulders up, the game wasn't shy about hair flair.